I 



SERMONS 



CONNECTED WITH THE 



gMpnutg flf tin €\m\ of t\t Saatjj |aris| f 



IN PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE, 



PREACHED DEC. 25 & 26, 1858; AND JAN. 30 AXD 
EEB. 6, 1859. 



BY ANDREW P. PEABODY, 



^Suilisticti frg Request, 




PORTSMOUTH : 
JAMES F. SHORES, JOT., & JOSEPH H. FOSTER. 
BOSTON: 
CROSBY, XICHOL3, AND COMPANY. 

1859. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by 

J. F. SHORES, JUN., AND J. H. FOSTER, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of 
New Hampshire. 

* , : 



BOSTON: 

PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON, 

22, School Strelt. 



CONTENTS. 



Sermon. page. 
I. — Christian Worship 5 

II. — Christ and the Father One 26 

III. — History of the South Parish 44 % 

IV. — History of the South Parish (continued) . . 65 



Appendix 91 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 



Preached at the Re-opening of the Church, Dec. 25, 1858. 



KIND Providence permits us, after our 



protracted absence, to renew our wor- 
ship on this long-hallowed spot ; and, I trust, 
not without glad and grateful hearts. I sym- 
pathize with those who most rejoice in the 
change that we witness in our sanctuary ; 
for I cannot but feel, that — - rapidly as we are 
passing on, and in all things, whether we so 
intend or not, living less for ourselves than 
for those who shall come after us — we have 
been doing a work for which our children 
and our children's children will thank us, and 
have made the extent, capacity, and conve- 



Heb. x. 20: "A new and living Way. 




6 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 



nience of our house of worship such as must 
meet the demands of those who shall assemble 
here for many generations. At the same 
time, in the general outlines of the walls and 
ceiling, we retain those larger features which 
gave individuality to the edifice, are indelible 
in all our associations with it, and will trans- 
mit the memory of the pure and refined taste 
which presided in its inception, and made it 
inferior to hardly any structure of the same 
date, in simple and massive elegance, and in 
fitness for its sacred uses. We have our tri- 
bute of gratitude to offer, that, in an enter- 
prise involving so much exposure and peril, 
the lives of those who have wrought the work 
for us have been preserved, and that not a 
single serious personal injury has occurred to 
leave a painful remembrance. I trust, also, 
that, in the inevitable differences of opinion 
connected with so large and important an 
undertaking, there has been such an exercise 
of the spirit of mutual concession and for- 
bearance, and so sincere a desire and en- 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 



T 



deavor to meet all reasonable wishes, that we 
re-enter our church no less a united Christian 
community than when we left it ; and that the 
unspeakable blessing of harmony, which has 
been ours for a time of which the memory 
of man runneth not to the contrary, will 
continue unimpaired longer than our forms 
or our names shall be remembered here. 
Though we would gladly have hastened the 
day, it may be accounted as a privilege that we 
return hither on the anniversary so precious 
to every Christian heart ; and that with our 
consecrating anthem and prayer we lift our 
thanksgiving for the advent of Him who has 
taught us to pray, and filled our hearts with 
praise. 

The blending of the two occasions suggests 
Christian Worship as our theme. I have 
separated the words of our text from the con- 
nection in which they stand as referring to 
the Saviour's death, and taken them as a 
motto for a discourse on what is peculiar in 
Christian worship, — on the way to the throne 



8 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 



and the mercy-seat opened by the advent of 
Christ. A new way ; for Christian worship 
has features entirely different from those 
which have appertained to any other religion 
except Judaism, and to which Jewish wor- 
ship bore only the resemblance which the 
part may bear to the whole, the beginning 
to the consummation, the germ to the ripened 
fruitage. A living way ; for the Saviour, 
born in Bethlehem, dying only to live again, 
ever-living, is the way. Christian worship 
may be considered as to its object, its de- 
mands of the individual worshipper, and the 
relations in which it places him toward 
the race of which he is a member. 

I. We consider its object, — not the Crea- 
tor, not the Sovereign, not the Judge, but 
the Father. All other modes of worship have 
been propitiatory, — have been offered to divi- 
nities that needed to be appeased and conci- 
liated. Even the devout Jew dared not come 
to the altar without his sacrifice ; and, without 
the shedding of blood, there was no remission. 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 



9 



Until Christ, the universal consciousness of 
mankind confessed an alienation from God, 
and a need of reconciliation, of atonement. 
Ill-desert interposed a fearful chasm between 
the sinner and his God. Man had defeated 
his own claims at the divine hand by his 
wide dereliction of the duties of a creature, 
a subject, a child. Before the awful justice 
and unsullied purity of his Judge, he was 
self-condemned. All that he felt able to do 
was, by sacrifice, or even by self-torture, to 
attest the depth of his humiliation, and with 
an agonized heart to implore the mercy, of 
which he traced no sign in the inflexible or- 
der of nature ; in the heavens, whose eternal 
silence the voice of pardon had not broken ; 
or in the earth, whose soil had not yet been 
trodden by any God-sent messenger of recon- 
ciliation. Hence groaned the altars with 
slaughtered hecatombs. Hence, in the stress 
of remorseful terror, flowed the blood of the 
first-born to expiate the father's transgression. 
Hence weary pilgrimages, and lacerations of 



10 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 



the flesh, and rendings of its living fibre, and 
self-immolations at the shrines of a deluded 
faith. But all this has been removed by the 
new and living way. In the sacrifice of 
Christ, mercy and justice meet ; righteousness 
and peace embrace each other. All that se- 
parated between man and God has been rent 
away ; the veil that hid the holy of holies is 
torn down ; and he who has seen Christ has 
seen the Father. Our ill-desert is none the 
less ; but reconciliation has been proclaimed, 
and sealed on the cross. Repentance has no 
additional intrinsic merit to cancel sin, and to 
avert its righteous penalty ; but, in the peace- 
speaking blood, there is mercy which rejoices 
against judgment. Man can urge no added 
claim in his own right ; but he can come as 
an erring and guilty child, and cast himself 
on the eternal love of the Father, whom 
Christ alone reveals and manifests. 

The living way, — oh! it is of unspeakable 
worth. None felt themselves repelled from 
the Saviour. The despised and rejected of 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 



11 



men fell with contrite tears at his feet. The 
sinful, in their penitence, were drawn to him 
by the very intensity of their guilt and need. 
Those, in whom right purpose struggled with 
conscious infirmity, were strengthened by his 
words of good cheer and promise. All that 
was worthy in them felt the might of his 
sympathy ; all that was evil yielded its hold 
on the hearts which were opened to his influ- 
ence. In his prayer for his murderers, in his 
death for a guilty race and world, there was 
love such as man had not seen or conceived. 
When we are taught to regard him as the 
image, the earthly manifestation, of God, then, 
for the first time, do we know and feel what 
it is to call God our Father. Yes, it is in 
him alone that we behold the Father. In him 
the Father comes forth to meet the penitent 
child, to throw around him the arms of eter- 
nal love, to open to his returning steps the 
everlasting mansion. Thus, in all the assur- 
ance, confidence, certainty, with which we can 
now lift our praises and our prayers ; in all 



12 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 



that makes our Christian worship a loving- 
service, — whenever our lips utter the blessed 
word Father, and a child's heart is borne 
heavenward in the utterance, — we are tread- 
ing the new and living way which Christ hath 
opened ; or, rather, which Christ is. 

But, my friends, glad and precious as this 
thought is, it has for us its solemn admoni- 
tion. If we come to God as to our Father, 
we can come only as his children, with filial 
love, with implicit trust, with obedient desire 
and purpose. In the Christian temple, above 
all, is the heartless service abhorrent. He, 
who stoops to the prayer of the penitent and 
the desire of the contrite, can have no response 
for the empty voice and the vacant show of a 
worship in which the soul cries not, with 
yearning love, " Abba, my Father ! " With 
this full and clear revelation of paternal mer- 
cy, there is only cast a deeper guilt, a surer 
condemnation, on those who will not love and 
trust and obey the Father thus revealed. As, 
then, we welcome the Saviour's advent, oh! let 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 13 

us take him to our hearts as the type and 
pledge of the Father, from whom he came ; 
and, through that one Mediator, let our vows 
of profound gratitude and entire self-consecra- 
tion go up to Him who has loved us with an 
everlasting love. 

II. We next consider Christian worship as 
to what it demands of the individual wor- 
shipper. Under every other system than the 
Christian, worship has been regarded as at 
least in some degree separated from cha- 
racter. Though, through the inspired pro- 
phets, there was the clear foreshining of a 
more spiritual dispensation, yet in Judaism, 
as held and practised by the overwhelming 
majority of the nation, there was an entire 
divorce between the worship and the life ; 
and those who were the most punctilious in 
ordinances were the most unscrupulous in 
morals ; fasting twice a week, and devouring 
widows' houses ; paying tithes of mint, anise, 
and cumin, and neglecting justice and charity. 
But, under Christ, the life is the worship. 



14 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 



The law of truth and right is the rubric, 
common speech and daily deeds the ritual, of 
devotion. We are to eat and drink, and do 
whatever we do, to the glory of God. We 
are to pray without ceasing. God is to have 
a part in every thought and purpose and act. 
All the ground on which we tread is hallowed 
ground: we never pass beyond temple-gates. 
Our homes are to be sanctuaries ; our fami- 
lies, churches ; even the house of merchandise, 
our Father's house. The idea which we are 
wont to express by sacred time, holy place, 
and other similar phrases, is utterly unchris- 
tian. The gospel does away the old distinc- 
tion between the common and the consecrated, 
not by desecrating the consecrated, but by 
hallowing the common ; by levelling, not 
downward, but upward. Thus it forbids 
oaths, but endows every word we utter with 
the sanctity of an oath. It enjoins no fasts ; 
but it would crown our feast-days with more 
than the devotion of a fast. Thus, also, it 
lifts up the six working days to the sabbath- 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 



15 



level of holy time ; and makes whatever may 
be the scene of duty, suffering, or joy, no less 
than the formally dedicated temple, the house 
of God and the gate of heaven. Yet, by this 
very process, fresh honor and added sanction 
are given to the sabbath and the sanctuary ; 
to the one as the divinely designated season, to 
the other as the fitting place, for kindling, 
reviving, and feeding the flame, which, dur- 
ing the working days and in the outside 
world, must often be kept alive in stifling air, 
or dense mists, or dreary wastes that yield 
no fuel. To state, in brief, the distinction : in 
other religions, rites and ordinances are wor- 
ship : in Christianity, they sustain and nourish 
worship. The gospel, then, unseats them only 
to establish them on a firmer basis ; casts 
them down from the cloud-built eminence of 
an arbitrary enactment, a factitious sanctity, 
and a talismanic efficacy, to lay the foundation 
for them in needs and utilities co-extensive 
with the race of man, and lasting as the life of 
man upon the earth. 



16 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 



The identification of worship with the entire 
life is of the highest practical value. It at- 
taches to all that we say and do the solemnity 
of an altar-service ; and brings to bear on the 
details of business and recreation, on the cares 
and duties of home, on those little things in 
which we are so prone to relax our watchful- 
ness and diligence, yet which set the current 
and determine the drift of character, the same 
infinite motives that are owned and suggested 
in our prayer and praise. We depart to our 
own injury and peril from the spirit of Chris- 
tian worship, whenever, even in thought, we 
separate from it aught that can bear the name 
of duty. The old theologians used to talk 
about the first and second tables of the Deca- 
logue, — the first religious, the second moral. 
There were, indeed, two tables ; probably be- 
cause it was easier for Moses to carry two 
than one. But neither is more religious than 
the other. Truth and honesty are as much a 
part of God's worship as reverence and sab- 
bath-keeping. In like manner, moralists have 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 17 

divided duties into religious, social, and per- 
sonal, — a division which may sometimes be 
convenient for reference, but which has no 
basis in the nature of things : for its religious- 
ness, its being of divine enactment, its being 
a part of worship, enters into the definition 
of duty ; and that which forms no portion of 
the daily, continual sacrifice required upon the 
altar of God, is not a duty. 

Here, too, we are led in worship by the liv- 
ing way. The perfectness, the solemnity, the 
religiousness, of the Saviour's common life, 
the consecration that rested on his every word 
and act, his manifest dwelling in the bosom of 
the Father while he walked among men, is the 
one type and pattern of perpetual worship, 
shows us how the life may be all praise, illus- 
trates the living sacrifice, and urges all who 
would follow Christ to glorify God alike with 
body and with spirit, and, in all times and in 
all places, to lift up holy hands and adoring- 
hearts. 



18 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 



III. We will now consider Christian wor- 
ship as regards the relations into which it 
brings us with our race. We pray not to my 
Father, but to our Father ; and of the world- 
wide sweep of the our we bear witness when 
we add. " Thy kingdom come." As we use 
our Lord's Prayer, it is only from this out- 
going of the heart, this contemplation of the 
sovereignty of God over all, this owning of a 
brotherhood broad as the universe, that we 
narrow our petitions to our own individual 
wants and needs. In this respect, Christianity 
stands alone. All other religions, Judaism ex- 
cepted, have been more or less caste-religions, 
either sanctioning the factitious distinctions of 
class, title, or descent, or else borrowing the 
aid of superstition to set up more cruel and 
invidious barriers between man and man. 
Thus the Bramin is too holy, the Pariah too 
vile, to touch the person or share the food of 
the member of another caste. The purest 
of the Grecian philosophers promised immor- 
tal life with the gods only to those of philo- 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 



19 



sophic culture ; while the souls of even the 
best men from among the common people 
were to tenant the bodies of ants, wasps, and 
bees. In the great Roman epic, JEneas finds 
in the Elysian fields none but poets, heroes, 
and men of renown. The Hebrews, indeed, 
under the divine guidance, formed a common- 
wealth ; but, if we except the more clear- 
sighted of their prophets, they had fellow- 
feeling for Jews alone, and their fierce ban 
rested on the nations beyond the pale of their 
covenant. Among the earliest arguments 
against Christianity, we find repeated and con- 
temptuous mention of its overpassing social 
and national distinctions ; of its extending its 
teachings and its hopes to the poor and the 
illiterate ; of its embracing in its charities all 
sorts and conditions of men. This feature 
was urged by Jew and Gentile as conclusive 
evidence against the divinity of the gospel ; 
nay, as shutting out its claims from rightful 
tolerance. In fine, the Pharisee's prayer, 
" God, I thank thee that I am not as other 



20 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 



men," is the type of all extra-Christian wor- 
ship. 

But the Christian cannot stand thus by 
himself when he prays. He cannot bring his 
own little cup to the fountain of living water, 
and get so much as a drop to allay his thirst. 
It is only when he is ready to offer the cup to 
every thirsty soul, that the waters flow for his 
own need. That is not Christian worship, 
where the highly privileged congregation wrap 
themselves in their own self-complacency ; re- 
joice in the quiet affluence of their own spirit- 
ual estate, in the walls of peace and bulwarks 
of salvation that surround their own fold ; 
while they ignore or scorn the heathenism 
and moral destitution, whether close around 
them or in the uttermost parts of the earth ; 
and omit from their counsel, prayer, and ef- 
fort, inveterate wrongs, time-indurated evils, 
giant forms of guilt, and profound depths of 
misery. Such worshippers may be at ease ; 
but it is not in Zion. They may offer prayer 
and praise ; but it is not to the Father of the 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 



21 



Lord Jesus, who will have all men to be 
saved. They may commune at a table spread 
in the solemn form and spotless beauty of 
holiness ; but it is not the table of Him whose 
nearest follower and most authentic inter- 
preter directs that prayer and supplication be 
made for all men. Christian worship is in 
itself a philanthropy broad as the race, deep 
as the needs of humanity. 

In this philanthropic worship we are guided 
by the living way. Jesus, in his single person- 
ality, runs through the entire scale of being. 
In the form of God, in the lowliest fortunes of 
humanity ; rich beyond thought, poorer than 
the poorest ; in the bosom of the Father, with 
no spot on earth where to lay his head ; her- 
alded by angels, crucified with malefactors ; 
adored by the hosts of heaven, buffeted by 
the meanest and coarsest of the children of 
men, — he comprehends in these contrasts all 
estates, and, by his exaltation above the high- 
est and his brotherhood with the lowest, makes 
of all one family. He, too, overpasses all na- 
3 



22 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 



tional barriers. Arabian sages brought their 
gifts to his manger-cradle ; among the first 
subjects of his divine charity were the Samari- 
tans, with whom the Jews had no dealings ; 
and his parting words command the preach- 
ing of the gospel, in all the world, to every 
creature. 

We have, then, for the characteristics of 
Christian worship, its object, — the Father, 
God ; its ritual, — the consecrated life ; its 
spirit, — universal charity and love. To this 
worship we renew the dedication of our house 
of prayer. To this we hallow these enlarged 
walls, with all that art and skill have wrought 
within them to make the place of our assem- 
bling a meet offering to the Most High. Of 
the tender, loving spirit, of the pervading, 
penetrating power, of the world-wide charity, 
of this worship, may those who shall stand in 
this pulpit bear faithful testimony ! As we 
come to this altar, may it be, not to spend an 
isolated hour in holy musing, but to pour out 
the treasured experiences of our daily devo- 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 



23 



tion and our constant beneficence, and to 
carry hence quickening thoughts for perpe- 
tual, lifelong communion with our Saviour! 
At this font may there be sealed the baptism, 
not to sacred names alone, but to the love of 
the Father ; to the following of the Lamb, 
whithersoever he goeth ; to the reception and 
the diffusion, in pure example, kindly en- 
deavor, and broadcast philanthropy, of the 
grace of the Holy Spirit ! As the stirring 
notes of this majestic organ wake the heart 
and attune the voice to the high praise of 
God, may they deepen our religious affec- 
tions, start the quickened throb of obedient 
purpose, and impart generous impulses that 
shall be felt in our whole life among men ! 
Thus may we, and those who shall come after 
us in far-off generations, here worship the 
Father in spirit and in truth ! 

And now let every heart be lifted in praise 
for that wonderful, glorious advent, whose 
hour was struck on angel-harps over the hill- 



24 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 



tops of Bethlehem ; that birth in which was 
born all that can give pure joy on earth,- — 
all that can feed the hope full of immortality. 
As we surround our tables, and gather about 
us those dear to us as our own souls, let fer- 
vent thanks go forth to Him whose gospel has 
created home, woven its indissoluble bonds, 
inbreathed its virtues and its charities, inter- 
twined the heart-fibres of its holy sympathies 
and loves. As, in our gatherings, there come 
up dear memories of the pure and lovely, the 
true and faithful, the innocent babe and the 
mature in age and goodness, translated before 
us to the heavenly society, let solemn grati- 
tude ascend to Him in whom those who were 
on earth united are not separated by death ; 
and through whom we know, that, if one in 
him with those who sleep in him, we shall 
see them eye to eye in the resurrection of 
the just. And as this anniversary marks for 
us a new stage of our passage onward in the 
great procession from dust to dust, oh ! let 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 



25 



our hosannas go up, from hearts that feel the 
power of his resurrection, to Him in whom 
alone the dead live ; and who hath said, " He 
that believeth in me shall never die." 



II. 



CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 



Preached on Sunday, Dec. 26, 1858. 



John x. 30 : "I and my Father are one." 

npHIS text is sometimes quoted in support 
of the doctrine of Christ's union with 
God as a person in the Trinity. But I can- 
not conceive of its being so quoted by any 
honest man who can read the Greek of the 
New Testament. Such is the grammatical 
form of the word rendered one, that it cannot 
possibly mean one person or one being. The 
literal translation of the passage is, " I and 
my Father are one thing ; " that is, " Our pur- 
pose and aim, as to the subject of discourse, — 
the safe-keeping of the flock, — is the same. I 



CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 27 

will not suffer them to be plucked out of my 
hand : my Father will not suffer them to be 
plucked out of his hand." The construction 
is the same as in the prayer of our Saviour in 
the seventeenth chapter of St. John's Gospel, 
where he says, " The glory which thou gavest 
me I have given them, that they may be one 
even as we are one." Thus our text can de- 
note no other union between Christ and God 
than that which subsists among all the mem- 
bers of Christ's body ; namely, the union of 
feeling, will, and endeavor. 

But while, as a proof-text for that one dis- 
puted doctrine, our text has no weight what- 
ever, it seems to me full of rich, tender, and 
encouraging significance. It closes that sur- 
passingly beautiful parable of the sheep and 
the shepherd. Jesus has represented by the 
most touching imagery his own care and love 
for his flock ; his readiness to do all and suffer 
air for them; nay, even to lay down his life 
for them : and now, to add force to these as- 
surances, he connects the Father's name with 



28 CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 

his own in his mission and ward of redeeming 
mercy. " My Father, which gave them me, 
is greater than all ; and none is able to pluck 
them out of my Father's hand. I and my 
Father are one." 

Let me now exhibit to you, by illustrations 
derived from what might take place in a hu- 
man family, the view of our Saviour's office 
which seems to me inconsistent with the sen- 
timent of the text, and the view which forces 
itself upon my own mind, and which I would 
gladly leave in connection with these words 
in your minds. 

In the first place, suppose yourself, my 
hearer, the wayward, disobedient child of a 
father, virtuous indeed, and kind to those 
who really deserve his kindness, but inexo- 
rably rigid in his adherence to what the world 
calls justice. He is angry with you for your 
misdoings. He has driven you from his 
house, and threatened to disinherit you, and 
to have nothing more to do with you. You, 
however, are sincerely penitent ; you acknow- 



CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 29 



ledge your father's claims upon you ; you 
long to be received home again, and to show 
the genuineness of your repentance by an 
altered life and character. Still that threat 
remains, and he deems himself bound in honor 
not to recall it. At this juncture a compas- 
sionate friend intervenes, who feels deeply for 
your orphaned, outcast condition, and deter- 
mines to do all that he can to restore you to 
your father's house. He goes to your father, 
and endeavors to appease his anger, to revive 
his paternal tenderness for you, and to recon- 
cile him to you. He succeeds only with great 
difficulty ; and, in order to satisfy your father's 
sensitiveness to the word which has gone from 
him that he will not receive you again, he 
even offers to take upon himself a punishment 
which shall be set off in the scales of justice 
against the penalty you merit. Now, you 
would never say of such a friend, that he and 
your father were one. They are as far apart 
as two beings can be. The one is all stern, 
legal justice ; the other, all love. The one, 



30 



CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 



retaining the name, has lost the heart, of a 
father ; the other, without the name, has a fa- 
ther's heart. 

I will make now a different supposition. 
You are, I will imagine, wayward and disobe- 
dient ; and, of your own accord, you have left 
your father's house. But you now sincerely 
repent. Your first thought is, " My offences 
are too great to be forgiven." You know r 
that you have deserved very ill of a father 
who was always kind to you. You are afraid 
to cross his threshold. You dread lest his 
justice may be too severe to receive you again 
to his favor. You impute to him the harsh 
thoughts, feelings, and judgment for which 
you know that you have given only too just 
cause. But your father takes the work of 
reconciliation into his own hands. He sends 
to you a dear friend of his, charged to tell you 
that your father loves you as well as he ever 
did ; that your guilt has not made him your 
enemy ; that his arms and his house are freely 
open to you, whenever you will return. This 



CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 



31 



friend seeks you out ; tells you that he has 
come at your father's request ; talks to you 
tenderly of your father's inalienable kindness 
and affection ; holds forth every representa- 
tion that can- be of avail to induce you to 
go back to your forsaken home. To impress 
you the more profoundly with the truth of his 
words, he partakes with you in the trials and 
sufferings of your exiled condition, and makes 
heavy and painful personal sacrifices while he 
is with you ; assuring you all the while, that, 
in what he endures for love of you, he is only 
manifesting the intensity of your father's love 
for you. Xow, of that friend you would feel 
that he and your father were one : for, in 
all that he said, did, and suffered, you would 
look right through him into your father's 
heart. 

These illustrations represent two widely dif- 
ferent theories with reference to the mission 
and office of Christ. According to one of 
these theories, we all rest for our sins under 
an inexorable sentence of condemnation and 



32 



CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 



eternal punishment. This sentence cannot be 
turned away by our penitence. The penalty, 
or its equivalent, must be somehow borne, — 
if not by us, by a substitute who shall take 
upon himself the sufferings due to us under 
the divine justice. Jesus interposes to appease 
the divine displeasure. He offers himself in 
our stead to shame and agony. He satisfies 
for us the stern demands of justice ; and God 
accepts the punishment of this innocent being 
instead of our punishment. Now, I maintain, 
that, according to this theory, God and Christ 
are not one, but opposite parties. Nor can I, 
on this ground, attach any meaning to such 
scriptures as, u God was in Christ, reconciling 
the world unto himself;" or, " God so loved 
the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son." 
For scripture appropriate to this dogma, I 
must turn away from the New Testament to 
the well-known hymn : — 

" Rich were the drops of Jesus' blood, 
That calmed His frowning face ; 
That sprinkled o'er the burning throne, 
And turned the wrath to grace." 



CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 33 

Indeed, one fatal objection to the theory now 
under consideration is, that there is no inti- 
mation of it in the New Testament, — not one 
word about the necessity of reconciling God, 
about substituted or vicarious punishment, or 
about the impossibility of God's freely forgiv- 
ing the sins of the penitent. 

Many, however, allege their own felt need 
as their reason for accepting this theory. 
They say that they are conscious of guilt, 
which, in its very nature, cannot be forgiven ; 
that they dare not trust the divine mercy in 
and of itself ; that they cannot come to God 
with any confidence, except through the blood 
of the innocent victim. I admit the reality of 
these feelings. They form, and have formed, 
a part of the religious experience of thousands 
upon thousands. But they are a need created 
by the very doctrine which satisfies it. In the 
earthly relation of father and child, if you so 
misapprehended your kind father's character 
as to suppose that on no account whatever he 
would pardon you, nothing could give you 



34 CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 



assurance of your favorable reception at home, 
unless some one took upon himself the punish- 
ment due to you. In like manner, if your 
views of the divine character forbid you to 
believe that God can freely forgive sin, you 
can suppose yourself forgiven only when a 
substitute appears to suffer in your stead. 

The other theory is this. Man had, by ac- 
cumulated guilt, merited the divine displea- 
sure, and incurred the inevitable retribution 
which must follow on the steps of unrepented 
sin. But God, who can hate nothing that he 
has made, looked with ineffable pity on the 
self-degraded and sin-ruined race. He saw in 
the manifestation of his own eternal love the 
only force which could overcome the power 
of sin ; which could call forth sincere contri- 
tion, and the will and endeavor to return to 
duty. He therefore sends from his throne 
one who shall assume the form, bow to the 
trials, and bear the sufferings, of his alienated 
and guilty children ; and, while mingling with 
them in the profoundest compassion and love, 



CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 35 

shall manifest only the fulness and tenderness 
of the divine pity. He appoints for this Mes- 
senger from heaven death under circum- 
stances of ignominy and bitter agony, because 
thus only can love manifest its sincerity and 
intenseness ; and, in this dying love, he pours 
out the rich fountain of his own paternal 
mercy. It is his own sacrifice ; and, in the 
pleadings with ungrateful man which go forth 
from that cross, it is the Father's voice we 
hear ; it is the Father that is incarnated in 
that holy Sufferer. Every look and accent of 
the Saviour's love is a reflection of the always 
reconciled countenance, an utterance of the 
always tender words and gracious promises, 
of Him who fills the throne of the universe. 
In this view, Christ and the Father are one. 
They are not opposing parties, but consenting 
wills and counsels, in the work of redemption. 

Do you ask, however, " Was it not essential 
that God should, in some way, or by the pun- 
ishment of some victim, manifest his hatred 
of sin ? " I answer, that hatred of sin is not 



36 CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 

displayed by the punishment of the innocent. 
Such a procedure would, on the contrary, 
evince an utter indifference to those moral 
distinctions which have their eternal seat in 
the divine attributes. God manifests his ha- 
tred of sin in that uniform and inevitable 
retribution which follows sin so long as it 
lasts, and which ceases only when its cause 
is removed. Nevertheless, the cross, among 
its many offices, does manifest, as it is mani- 
fested in no other way, the intrinsic loath- 
someness of sin, — of all sin ; for it was pre- 
cisely such sins as we are all most liable to 
which crucified the only sinless Being that 
ever trod the earth, and consummated that 
outrage from which the very heavens with- 
drew their light. Yes, in that cross, in which 
we look upon the fulness of the divine love, we 
equally behold the intensest manifestation of 
human depravity : and its searching, wither- 
ing rebuke rests on you and me for the sins 
we have cherished ; for the motions of sins in 
oar hearts ; for the least seeds of those pas- 



CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 



37 



sions which culminated in the death of him 
who came to dethrone and destroy them. 

There is yet another aspect in which I wish 
to present the sentiment of our text, " I and 
my Father are one." While I consider our 
Saviour as at the head of God's spiritual 
family, and render to him honor, adoration, 
and praise, limited only by the homage due 
to his Father and ours, I cannot set aside or 
explain away his words, " The Father is 
greater than I ; " nor can I regard as self- 
derived that which he in solemn prayer terms 
" the glory which Thou hast given me ; " nor 
can I suppose that he is praying to himself 
when he prays to God. But then comes the 
question, " Can you rely on a created being ? 
Can you trust in less than an almighty Sa- 
viour ? " I reply unhesitatingly, No. My soul 
can rejoice only in the Lord ; my spirit can be 
glad only in God my Saviour. I can lean on 
nothing less than Omnipotent Love. But let 
us try the issue here involved. In a transac- 
tion between man and man, an agent comes 

4 



88 CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 



to you with authentic credentials, with a 
power of attorney from a person with whom 
you have important business. You do not 
trust that agent in his own character, but 
only as the representative of his employer. 
His signature is to all intents, and for all 
uses, his employer's signature. His contract 
with you, you can maintain as against his 
employer ; and all the authority of the State 
is with you to enforce your claim. The power 
of attorney makes the agent and his principal 
one : they are one in the eye of the law, and 
by every rule of justice and equity. An am- 
bassador comes from France or England with 
full power to negotiate a treaty with our 
government. The terms of the treaty are 
agreed upon with the cabinet at Washington, 
and ratified by the Senate. It is regarded as 
a treaty, not with the plenipotentiary, but 
with his queen or his emperor, — with the go- 
vernment that gave him his credentials. He 
and the government he represents are one, 
and are held as one by the law of nations and 



CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 



39 



the universal sentiment of mankind. Thus, 
when Christ comes, and shows in his miracu- 
lous birth, in his divine character and works, 
in his resurrection and ascension, credentials 
from God which cannot be forged, he and his 
Father are thenceforth one. His words are 
God's words ; his law, God's law ; his pro- 
mises, God's promises. He represents the 
Almighty. If he comes from God, God comes 
to us in his person. He, whom mortal eye 
else has not seen, is made visible in this his 
fully accredited agent. Our trust for pardon 
and salvation is not reposed in a created 
being, — not even in " the First-born of every 
creature ; " but in Him who is from eternity 
to eternity. " The most high God is our 
refuge ; and underneath are the everlasting 
arms." 

Here, then, with all their differences, Chris- 
tian believers are virtually agreed. All alike 
depend on an almighty Saviour. Through 
Jesus we go to God ; and God draws nigh 
to us, and reveals himself to our familiar know- 



40 CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 

ledge and intimate communion. The whole 
worth of Christ's mission depends on the one- 
ness ascribed in our text to the Father and the 
Son, — their oneness of will and purpose, love 
and mercy. It is this oneness which renders 
the contemplation of our Saviour's character so 
intensely interesting. In learning what he is, 
we enter into the mind and heart of God. In 
comprehending more and more of his love, we 
learn how tender and faithful is the affection 
cherished for us by Him who gave and who 
sustains our being. In imitating Jesus, we 
become followers of God. 

I close with a thought suggested by our text, 
in the connection in which it stands. This one- 
ness of the Son with the Father is urged solely 
by way of encouragement, at the close of one of 
the kindest and most encouraging of all our 
Saviour's discourses. The idea is, " We are 
one in our desire and endeavor to bring and 
keep together the flock of the redemption-fold ; 
we are united in the most assiduous and loving 
pastorate for all who will place themselves un- 



CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 41 

der our charge." Now, it seems to me that the 
opposite feeling to this is prevalent in some 
quarters, — a feeling which not unfrequently dis- 
courages and disheartens those who have every 
reason to take to themselves the promises and 
hopes of the gospel. The feeling is as if the 
door of the fold were jealously guarded, — as 
if some harsh and severe porter stood there to 
challenge those who desire to enter, - — as if 
there were a stern and censorious inquisition 
through which alone one can pass in. Many 
remain without because they cannot hope to 
enter through such an ordeal ; while many 
more, who have really crossed the threshold, 
are so much agitated by doubt and fear, that 
they know not whether they are within or with- 
out. Now, the whole tone of our Saviour's 
discourses is that of free invitation, full recep- 
tion, cordial welcome, wherever desire and pur- 
pose, love and endeavor, are directed toward 
duty, God, and heaven. Though the door is 
not wide enough to admit willing guilt or cold 
indifference, yet it seems to me so wide, and so 



42 CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 

wide-open always, that one may almost enter 
without knowing it. There are, I think, many 
Christians who dare not call themselves so ; 
and the very solicitude which many feel lest 
they may have been presumptuous in taking 
upon themselves the Saviour's name, is a soli- 
citude that could hardly be cherished where 
there was good reason for it. " To this man 
will I look, saith the Lord, — to him that is poor 
and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my 
word." 

Should not we, who have our place within 
the visible fold of Christ, be, in this regard, one 
with our Father and our Saviour ? I would 
not bate one jot from the elevated standard of 
character and conduct which we should propose 
for ourselves, and urge more by example than 
by precept upon others. Our lives ought to 
honor our profession, and to attest the sin- 
cerity of our faith. But we should be as genial 
and cordial in our welcome of others to the 
fold as we are strict in our own self-discipline. 
Wherever there are Christian desires and pur- 



CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 43 



poses, a face and steps manifestly turned Christ- 
ward, a looking and striving for the things that 
are holy and divine, there should we be prompt 
and warm in our proffers of fellowship, feeling 
that the work of grace is there begun, and may 
be cherished and consummated, though not 
without divine aid, yet more surely and effect- 
ually by human sympathy and helpfulness. 
While the Spirit of God, and the Bride, which 
is the Church of Christ, say, " Come," let those 
who for themselves have accepted the invita- 
tion say, " Come." Let them echo and pro- 
long the loving call, and, in the name of the 
great Master of the household, extend its hos- 
pitality wherever they can find a willing and 
thankful guest. " Let whosoever will, come, 
and take of the waters of life freely." 



III. 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



Preached Jan. 30, 1859. 



1 Kings viii. 57: " The Lord our God be with us, as he 

WAS WITH OUR FATHERS." 

£T was my intention to give you, on the 
twenty-fifth anniversary of my ordina- 
tion, a sketch of the history of the South 
Parish ; but it seemed best to postpone this 
till we should be re-assembled in our usual 
place of worship. I propose to make our 
parochial history the subject of my sermons 
this and the next Sunday afternoon. I shall 
pass rapidly over the ecclesiastical affairs of 
the town, till the period when the South 
Church first had its separate existence. 

The earliest settlement within the present 
limits of Portsmouth was made in 1623 ; the 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



45 



first church was gathered, and the first mini- 
ster settled, in 1671. Prom this delay, too 
unfavorable inferences might easily be drawn 
as to the religious character of our fathers. 
There is, indeed, no doubt that, while in the 
colonization of Massachusetts religious motives 
were foremost, the planters on the Piscataqua 
established themselves here chiefly for pur- 
poses connected with commerce and the fisher- 
ies. Yet that higher cares and interests were 
not neglected, we may learn from the fact, that, 
as early as 1640, a grant of fifty acres of land — 
three-fourths of it at the head of the Creek, the 
remainder in this now compact part of the city 
— was made for the support of the gospel mini- 
stry. The terms of that grant imply that there 
were already standing, on the glebe-land, a cha- 
pel and parsonage, erected, it may be, several 
years earlier. But most of the settlers were 
attached to the church of England, whose per- 
manent ministrations it was difficult to procure, 
and still more difficult to defend against the hos- 
tile and intrusive jurisdiction of the Massachu- 



46 HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 

setts Bay Colony. The chapel and parsonage 
occupied a site on what is now Pleasant Street, 
abutting, on the north, upon the present site of 
the Universalist Church. The twelve and a 
half acres of glebe-land extended from that 
spot to the present front line of the North 
Church, and were bounded by lines of the same 
length running westward. Richard Gibson, an 
Episcopalian, is the first clergyman known to 
have officiated here ; and his ministry was ar- 
rested by a summons before the General Court, 
at Boston, for some alleged offence against 
the government of Massachusetts. After his 
departure, various clergymen, probably both 
Episcopal and Puritan, were transiently em- 
ployed. 

The chapel was perhaps found too small for 
the increasing population; and, at the same 
time, was in the outermost suburbs of the town, 
which was built principally on the bank of the 
river, and extended, in a southerly direction, 
from what is now the foot of Court Street. 
Accordingly, in 1G58, a new meeting-house was 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 47 

erected on the hill below the South Mill Bridge, 
at the present junction of Water and South 
Streets. This was a substantial building of 
sixty feet by thirty, with galleries, a low belfry 
and a bell, the windows with diamond panes 
set in lead. It originally had no pews ; the 
men and women being seated on opposite sides 
of the main floor, according to their respective 
claims to precedence, and the boys and girls 
occupying places in opposite galleries. Pews 
were subsequently built, in various parts of the 
edifice, by individual worshippers. A cage, a 
pillory and stocks, in the early New-England 
fashion, brought the terrors of the law into 
close proximity to the milder ministrations of 
the gospel. 

Eev. Joshua Moody commenced preaching 
here about the time of the completion of this 
meeting-house ; and, in 1671, was ordained over 
a church of nine members then organized. In 
1684, the persecution and determined hostility 
of Cranfield, the royal governor, compelled him 
to leave the Province : and he officiated for 



48 HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 

several years as assistant minister of the First 
Church in Boston ; making, however, frequent 
visits to his flock here, aiding them by his 
counsel, and observing, by special exercises of 
devotion in their behalf, all their stated sea- 
sons of fasting and prayer. In 1693, he re- 
turned to Portsmouth, and remained in the 
assiduous exercise of his pastorate till 1697 ; 
when he died at Boston, whither he had gone 
for medical advice. He was an eminently ju- 
dicious, devout, and faithful minister ; and left 
his church united and prosperous, one hundred 
and sixty members having been added during 
his term of service. He was succeeded by 
Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, son of the President of 
Harvard College ; a man of high reputation for 
learning, piety, and usefulness. It is during 
his term of office that our separate history 
commences. 

Population had gradually extended back 
from the river, and northwardly from the Mill 
Dam ; till, early in the last century, there had 
sprung up a rivalry and collision of interests 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 49 

between the old part of the town and the new. 
At the south end lived, for the most part, the 
descendants of the original settlers, among 
whom were the stoutest workers, the most 
active citizens, and, as was natural, the most 
resolute conservatives. The northern portion of 
the town was much more thinly peopled, and 
was inhabited, in part, by government officials 
of considerable income and influence ; in part 
by new-comers, who had built more ample 
mansions, and laid out grounds on a larger 
scale than they could easily have found room 
for in the somewhat crowded village about the 
Mill Dam. As I understand the condition of 
things, within the more compact portion of the 
town, numerical strength was on the side of 
the southern, the preponderance of wealth and 
personal influence on that of the northern, fac- 
tion. The latter supplied the deficiency in 
numbers by securing the co-operation of the 
inhabitants of what is now Greenland : promis- 
ing them, in return, aid in obtaining speedy 
incorporation as a separate town. The meet- 



50 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



ing-house near the Mill Dam was the property 
of the town as a municipal body ; and the funds 
for the support of the ministry were assessed 
and collected as a part of the tax for municipal 
purposes, there being as yet no legal distinction 
between the town and the parish. The meet- 
ing-house needed extensive repairs, in order to 
its continued occupancy ; and, in 1712, a vote 
was passed for the erection of a new house of 
worship on the north-east corner of the glebe- 
land, — the same building which was recently 
removed to make room for the present Xorth 
Church. Jan. 7, 1713, the church passed a 
vote, directing Mr. Rogers to preach at the 
new meeting-house on and after the third Sun- 
day from that date. I am inclined to think 
that this order was complied with, and that, for 
several months, the inhabitants all met for wor- 
ship in the new edifice. 

Meanwhile deep dissatisfaction was brooding 
at the south end ; and the party that felt itself 
aggrieved found a resolute leader in John Pick- 
ering, second of the name. He was, we have 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



51 



reason to believe, a man of no common ability, 
and of wonderfully versatile powers and accom- 
plishments. He owned and managed the south 
mill. He was a licensed innholder. He com- 
manded a military company. He was a car- 
penter ; and constructed, by contract with the 
town, the apparatus for the punishment of evil- 
doers, which stood hard by the meeting-house. 
He was a lawyer, and appeared as counsel 
before the Supreme Court, in a case involving 
the titles to a large portion of the real estate of 
his fellow-citizens. He was a member of the 
Assembly for twelve years, and Speaker of that 
body for nine. He evidently was, and de- 
served to be, a popular man ; and, though he 
undoubtedly carried into ecclesiastical affairs a 
temper ill befitting such high and sacred con- 
cerns, there is equally little doubt that he 
acted in behalf of what he believed to be the 
right and interest of his friends and neighbors. 
Sept. 9, 1713, a town-meeting was held, of 
which he was chosen moderator. The meeting 
became tumultuous ; and the justices present 



52 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



declared it dissolved, and forbade all farther 
proceedings. Notwithstanding this. Picker- 
ing put. and his party carried, several votes, 
of which he kept the minutes, and entered 
them on the town-record, the town-clerk re- 
fusing to act : the purport of these votes being, 
that the old meeting-house is. and shall for ever 
be, the town meeting-house, to be replaced, 
when no longer tenantable. by another on the 
same spot ; and that the glebe-land shall be for 
the use and benefit of the minister who shall 
officiate at the old meeting-house. A commit- 
tee was then appointed to confer with Mr. 
Rogers, to ascertain whether he would comply 
with the tenor of these votes ; and. in case of 
his refusal, to procure a minister to officiate in 
the old meeting-house. Mr. Rogers, as was 
probably anticipated, declined complying with 
this requisition : and Eev. John Emerson was 
invited by the committee to settle over the 
portion of the inhabitants represented by them. 
In June of the next year, at a general town- 
meeting, a committee was chosen to call and 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



53 



settle an orthodox and learned minister at the 
south end ; and it was voted to pay his salary 
of <£100, and to provide for him a house at the 
charge of the town. This committee ratified 
the measures taken for the settlement of Mr. 
Emerson : but the authorities of the town re- 
fused to comply with the above-named vote ; 
and, after several unsuccessful attempts to pro- 
cure by legal measures the stipulated payment, 
the South Parish was left to its own resources 
for the support of its minister. In March, 
1715, Mr. Emerson was installed; Rev. Chris- 
topher Toppan, of Hampton, giving him the 
Charge ; and Rev. Caleb dishing, of Salisbury, 
Mass., and Rev. Theophilus Cotton, assist- 
ing in the services. The tradition is, that a 
majority of the church adhered to Mr. Emer- 
son ; but this was certainly not the case with 
a majority of the legal voters in church-affairs. 

Mr. Emerson was the son of Rev. John Em- 
erson, of Gloucester, Mass. He was born at 
Ipswich, Mass., in 1670 ; was graduated at 
Harvard University at the age of nineteen ; was 

5 



54 HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 

first settled at Manchester, Mass. ; and was pas- 
tor of the church in Newcastle from 1703 to 
1712. In 1708, he visited England ; was pre- 
sented to Queen Anne, and was received by 
her with distinguished favor. His portrait, 
which many of us have seen, represents unusu- 
ally attractive and commanding features, and 
a winning expression of countenance ; and he 
is reported to have been a man of engaging 
manners and conversation, and an eloquent and 
interesting preacher. That he was earnest 
and faithful in his ministerial office, is evinced 
by the large accessions to the church during 
his pastorate. In 1727 occurred what was 
long called " the great earthquake," which 
spread terror throughout New England, and was 
the means of a general religious awakening. 
In the course of the following year, forty persons 
were added to Mr. Emerson's church ; and he 
was so profoundly impressed by the event which 
had led to this increased seriousness in his 
flock, that he commemorated its anniversary 
by solemn religious services, for the residue of 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



55 



his ministry. In 1731, the present Old South 
Meeting-house was built on a site bequeathed 
to the parish by the John Pickering who had 
been so largely instrumental in its separate or- 
ganization. A portion of the disused meeting- 
house was removed to the site now occupied by 
Congress Block, where it stood, retaining some 
of the original windows, till it was taken down 
to make room for the present edifice. Another 
portion formed a part of the Old South School- 
house, a segment of which was removed to 
Cabot Street, and converted into a dwelling- 
house. Mr. Emerson offered a prayer, after the 
raising of the new meeting-house, on a staging 
fixed in the frame ; and it was his last public 
service. He died in January, 1732. 

His successor at Newcastle, Rev. William 
Shurtleff, was also his successor here. Mr. 
Shurtleff was born at Plymouth, Mass., in 1689 ; 

i 

was graduated at Harvard College at the age 
of eighteen ; and was ordained at Newcastle in 
1712. His wife was the sister of Hon. Theo- 
dore Atkinson. The tradition is, that she mini- 



56 HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 

stered largely to the development of Christian 
forbearance, meekness, and patience, in her 
husband, and that her connection with him was 
the severest trial of his life. She survived him 
for many years ; and one of my aged parishion- 
ers, who died a few years after my settlement, 
distinctly remembered her. I have in my pos- 
session a piece of plate bequeathed by her for the 
use of the minister of the South Parish for the 
time being. She also bequeathed in the same 
terms a portrait of her husband ; which was un- 
fortunately suffered to pass into the hands of 
an antiquary, from whom I have in vain en- 
deavored to reclaim it. 

Mr. Shurtleff was a man of good abilities, 
fervent piety, and glowing zeal. He was warmly 
engaged in the great revival of religion which 
commenced, under the preaching of Whitefield, 
in 1740. Whitefield and Gilbert Tennent visit- 
ed this town, and preached to immense multi- 
tudes. At least on one occasion, perhaps oft- 
ener, Whitefield, on entering the pulpit of the 
South Meeting-house, found a much larger as- 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



57 



sembly outside than the closely packed congre- 
gation within the walls ; and, by his direction, 
the pulpit window was removed, and he, stand- 
ing on the window-sill, preached to the crowds 
that filled the seats and aisles, covered the hill, 
and thronged the adjacent streets, yards, en- 
tries, and windows. In the " Christian History," 
a periodical printed weekly in Boston in 1743 
and 1744, there are two letters from Mr. Shurt- 
leff giving an account of the revival here. 
With some procedures that certainly savored of 
wild fanaticism, he describes much that indi- 
cates a pure and precious spiritual influence, a 
felt power of divine realities, the awakening of 
professing Christians to unwonted religious 
vitality, and the conversion of many that had 
been opposers and scoffers. On a candid review 
of the history of that period, we cannot but be- 
lieve, that though Whitefield was blameworthy, 
and so subsequently confessed himself, for bit- 
ter censoriousness in his treatment of the set- 
tled clergy, and though his itinerancy led to ex- 
cesses and extravagances which breathed more 



58 HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 

of animal passion than of Christian piety, he 
yet found in the New-England churches a cold- 
ness and declension, which, by his instrumen- 
tality, gave place to an earnest, active, and per- 
sistent interest in divine things ; and while the 
still small voice, if it be from God, is to be 
preferred to more vehement outpourings of 
religious zeal, . far better is the fire or the 
whirlwind than the apathy of spiritual death. 

Mr. Shurtleff published several sermons, two 
of which I have seen. These, and his contri- 
butions to the " Christian History," would lead 
me to place a high estimate on his ability as 
a writer, as well as on his faithfulness and 
efficiency as a preacher. During his ministry, 
harmony was restored between the North and 
the South Church; and, from that time till 
1819, their pastors were in the habit of fre- 
quent interchange and union in the services of 
religion. He died in 1747 ; and his remains 
were deposited, as were those of his successor, 
under the communion-table of the South 
Meeting-house. 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 59 



The pulpit remaining vacant, in 1749 the 
parish sent two of their number to Northamp- 
ton, Mass., to invite Mr. Job Strong to visit 
Portsmouth, with a view to his settlement. Mr. 
Strong was born at Northampton in 1724, and 
graduated at Yale College in 1747. On leav- 
ing college, he was recommended to the Com- 
missioners of the English Society for the Pro- 
pagation of the Gospel, by David Brainerd, 
their eminent and devoted missionary, then 
approaching the close of life, as a suitable per- 
son to be employed as a missionary to the In- 
dians of the Six Nations. Mr. Strong received 
the appointment, and spent several months at 
Bethel, N.J., with John Brainerd, the brother 
and successor of David, who presided over a 
settlement and church of converted Indians. 
A letter from him to his parents, written from 
Bethel, is preserved in the last London edition 
of the Works of Jonathan Edwards. It is cre- 
ditable equally to his head and his heart ; show- 
ing nice discrimination in his judgment of what 
had and what had not been done among the 



60 HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



Bethel Indians, a kind and sympathizing appre- 
ciation of all that was hopeful in their state, 
and an earnest devotion to the work before him. 
At the same time, the letter is free from cant 
and extravagance in language ; is singularly 
calm ; marks a maturity of intellect beyond 
his years ; and evinces that he had entered his 
Master's vineyard, not with the hot zeal of a 
novice, but with the deliberate purpose of one 
who had counted the cost, and made his life- 
long choice of the service. From Bethel he 
started for his destined post in Central New 
York ; but on reaching Schoharie, then a fron- 
tier settlement in the wilderness, he was ar- 
rested by illness, and obliged to return. It 
was while he was seeking to re-establish his 
health at his native home, that Matthew Liver- 
more and Henry Sherburne visited him in be- 
half of this parish. Mr. Edwards, his pastor 
and spiritual father, consented that he should 
go to Portsmouth, only on the pledge of these 
gentlemen that they would not use their influ- 
ence toward his settlement here. They kept 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



61 



their word ; but the parish was not pledged, 
and very soon gave him a call to become their 
pastor. He returned a negative answer, and 
took measures toward resuming his suspended 
missionary enterprise ; but his health was so 
far impaired, that he was pronounced inade- 
quate to a charge involving the utmost expo- 
sure and fatigue. The call from Portsmouth 
was then renewed and accepted. 

He was ordained on the 28th of June, 1749. 
The ordination sermon was preached by his 
pastor, Jonathan Edwards, so justly regarded 
as the greatest mind of his century in theology 
and metaphysics. I have the sermon. It is a 
faithful and earnest exhibition of Jesus Christ 
as the example for his ministers, on the text, 
" For I have given you an example, that ye 
should do as I have done to you. Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, The servant is not 
greater than his lord, neither he that is sent 
greater than he that sent him." A curious 
anecdote with reference to this service is re- 
lated, in the Memoir of Edwards, by his grand- 



62 HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



son. A daughter of Mr. Edwards (afterwards 
Mrs. D wight, mother of President D wight), 
then fifteen years of age, had preceded her 
father on a visit to a friend of the family in 
Portsmouth. On the morning of the ordina- 
tion, Mr. Edwards not having arrived, Father 
Moody, of York, Me., whose eccentricities have 
left their enduring remembrance, agreed to 
preach in case of the failure of the expected 
preacher. The council delayed as long as pos- 
sible, and then repaired to the meeting-house. 
Mr. Moody rose to offer the prayer before ser- 
mon. In this he besought the Lord that the 
congregation might be suitably humbled under 
the frown of his providence, in not being per- 
mitted to hear the discourse anticipated from 
his eminent servant, — Eev. Mr. Edwards, of 
Northampton ; and proceeded to thank God 
for such a burning and shining light, for his 
uncommon piety, his great excellence and re- 
markable success as a preacher, and his talents 
and wisdom as a writer. . He then went on to 
implore the divine blessing on the daughter of 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 63 

Mr. Edwards there present, who, though a very 
worthy and amiable young lady, was still, there 
was reason to fear, in an unconverted state ; 
praying that God would not suffer her peculiar 
privileges to be the means of her more aggra- 
vated condemnation. Just as this remarkable 
prayer was commenced, Mr. Edwards had rid- 
den on horseback to the door of the meeting- 
house, noiselessly entered the pulpit, and taken 
his place behind Mr. Moody. When the prayer 
was closed, Mr. Moody saw Mr. Edwards, gave 
him his hand, and said to him, in the hearing 
of the congregation, " Brother Edwards, we 
are all of us much rejoiced to see you here 
to-day ; and nobody, probably, as much so as 
myself : but I wish that you might have got in 
a little sooner, or a little later ; or else that I 
might have heard you when you came in, and 
known that you were here. I didn't intend to 
flatter you to your face : but there's one thing 
I'll tell you ; they say " — alluding to the 
profoundness of his metaphysical subtilty in 
things pertaining to salvation — " that your 



64 HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 

wife is going to heaven by a shorter road than 
yourself." 

Mr. Strong entered with earnestness and vigor 
upon his labors ; but his ministry lasted little 
more than two years. One Saturday in Sep- 
tember, 1751, his only child, an infant of but 
a few days, was buried. On the next morning 
he preached from the text, " Though I walk 
through the valley of the shadow of death, I 
will fear no evil." He went home but to pre- 
pare for that fearless passage. Before the 
hour of afternoon service, he was seized with 
severe illness ; and died in the course of the 
next day, leaving long regret and a blessed 
memory. 

I have now brought my narrative down to a 
ministry whose beginnings were fresh in the 
remembrance of a few of my older parishioners 
when I was first settled, and whose latter years 
are within the recollection of the older portion 
of my present hearers. Next Sunday after- 
noon, I hope to resume and complete my sketch 
of our parochial history. 



IY. 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



1 Kings viii. 57 : " The Lord our God be wrrn us as he 



AST Sunday afternoon, I brought down the 



history of our parish to the close of Mr. 
Strong's brief pastorate. His successor was 
Rev. Samuel Haven. He was born at Framing- 
ham, Mass., in 1727 ; was graduated at Harvard 
University in 1749 ; studied theology with Rev. 
Mr. Parkman, of Westborough, Mass. ; received 
and declined invitations to settle in Brookfield, 
Medway, Braintree, and Brookline, Mass. ; ac- 
cepted a unanimous invitation here, and was 
ordained in May, 1752 ; Rev. Jeremiah Wise, 



(continued. ) 



Preached Feb, 6, 1859. 



"WAS WITH OUR FATHERS. 




63 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



of Berwick. Me., preaching the sermon. When 
a boy of thirteen, he had been greatly impressed 
by Whitefield's preaching; and had. from that 
time, resolved to consecrate himself to the 
ministry of the gospel. He possessed a large 
portion of the best endowments for his work, 
and was for many years one of the most popu- 
lar preachers of his time ; a fact evinced by 
the frequency with which he was called upon 
to officiate on important public occasions. In 
early life, his delivery was unusually fervent 
and impassioned. Until a comparatively re- 
cent period, it was customary here, at funerals, 
to have an address delivered at the grave : and 
there are extant numerous testimonials to Dr. 
Haven's extraordinary pathos and eloquence in 
that class of services ; in which, said Dr. Buck- 
minster, " for variety, copiousness, tenderness, 
and pertinency of address, he was rarely 
equalled, never exceeded. " His numerous 
published sermons display clearness of method, 
simplicity and directness of style, and a free- 
dom — rare in the last century — from the 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 67 

metaphysics and technicalities of doctrinal theo- 
logy. 

In his opinions, I suppose that, he should 
be classed with the Arminian or more liberal 
portion of the New-England clergy ; who were 
also called moderate Calvinists, though they 
were as remote from Calvinism as are the more 
liberal of the so-called Orthodox divines of the 
present day. His loving heart led him to 
speculate with Chauncy on the final restora- 
tion of the impenitent to the divine favor. 
But this doctrine he did not regard as a re- 
vealed truth ; and was, therefore, unwilling to 
preach it. The only form in which he pro- 
mulgated it was in a poem devoted to its 
development, with the following note prefixed : 
" The author means only modestly to hint the 
sentiments contained in this ode to the public 
mind for their consideration." 

This poem appears in a pamphlet of twenty- 
three pages, entitled " Poetic Miscellanies," 
published when Dr. Haven had passed his 
seventy-first year. The pieces are nearly all 



68 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



devotional ; and display, not indeed a poetic 
ability which would have given the author 
extended fame, but a warm and vivid fancy, 
an easy command of various measures, a 
quick ear for rhythm and euphony, and a high- 
ly cultivated taste. One of them is an im- 
promptu epigram, which passed from paper 
to paper and from mouth to mouth, as the 
best thing ever said, in brief, about Washing- 
ton. The question was asked, among a circle 
of gentlemen who were making arrangements 
for the reception of the first President, what 
was the appropriate title by which he should 
be addressed. Dr. Haven gave instant utter- 
ance to the following stanza : — 

" Fame spread her wings, and with her trumpet hlew, — 
* Great Washington is near! What praise his due? 
What title shall he have ? ' She paused, and said, 
4 Not one: his name alone strikes every title dead.' " 

Dr. Haven was singularly assiduous and 
faithful as a pastor. At a period when the 
intercourse of most clergymen with their peo- 
ple was distant, reserved, and formal, he cul- 



HISTOEY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 69 

tivated the most intimate relations with all his 
parishioners, and with none more intimate 
than with the children of his flock. He had 
pursued the study of medicine to a consider- 
able extent ; and, without interfering with 
the regular faculty, he was wont to prescribe 
gratuitously for those too poor to employ a 
physician. From an income never ample, and 
with a very large family, he found the means 
for extensive almsgiving. During the war of 
the Revolution, when his salary was in arrears, 
and his resources were scanted in every way, 
he shared his little with those who had nothing. 
At one time, there were no fewer than forty 
widows in his parish ; most of them in desti- 
tute circumstances. There were living, in the 
earlier part of my ministry, a considerable 
number of these pensioners on his kindness ; 
and I never visited them, without their speak- 
ing to me of his sympathy, gifts, and efficient 
services, in the stress of their need. His name 
was on their lips in the very agony of death. 
Some of them have told me, that, in the 

6 



70 HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



absence of the public and private charities 
now so liberally dispensed, his care and gene- 
rosity were all that stood between them and 
utter despair. 

For forty-seven years he preached constant- 
ly, and performed all the duties of his parish : 
but, for the last three years of that period, he 
had been sinking under the infirmities of age ; 
and, in 1799, a colleague was settled with 
him, who remained here six years, leaving 
him again sole pastor for the last year of his 
life. Shortly after the settlement of his col- 
league, he preached and published a sermon 
on the occasion ; which is, I think, the best 
of all his printed sermons ; and, though it 
breathes the tender solemnity of one just 
resigning his charge, betrays no failure in 
mental vigor, or in clearness and precision of 
thought. For two or three years longer, he 
occasionally preached ; and several times, 
when, too feeble to ascend the pulpit-stairs, 
he was obliged to conduct the service in the 
deacons' seat below. He commonly presided 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



71 



at the communion-service till the autumn of 
1804 ; and, when I first came hither, there 
were many living who remembered his im- 
pressive farewell of the altar at which, for 
fifty-two years, he had broken the bread of 
life. For a year and a half before his death, 
he was in a state of entire mental imbecility, 
and of great bodily suffering. He died in 
March, 1806. His wife — who had attended 
him constantly during his decline, and seemed 
in her usual health at the time of his decease 
— - survived him but thirty-six hours ; and 
their bodies were laid together in his family 
tomb, under the pulpit of the Old South 
Meeting-house ; Rev. Dr. Buckminster preach- 
ing the funeral sermon, on the text, " A son 
of consolation." 

The early part of his ministry was emi- 
nently prosperous ; but, a large portion of his 
parishioners being in mercantile and mari- 
time professions, the distresses attending the 
Revolutionary war were felt among them with 
peculiar severity. When the depression re- 



72 HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



suiting from this cause was relieved, his 
strength was rapidly on the wane ; and the 
popular talents which distinguished him for 
many years had given place to a diminished 
energy and eloquence of style and manner. 
At the same time, Dr. Buckminster, in the 
North Church, was nearing the meridian of 
his merited fame ; and bore a reputation for 
his pulpit services, which, I think, has never 
been surpassed, if equalled, by any clergyman 
in New Hampshire. In the early years of the 
present century also, Elias Smith, the founder 
of the Christian denomination, commenced 
preaching in this town ; and, by his rude but 
commanding and attractive powers, drew into 
his newly gathered flock large numbers from 
both of the Congregational societies. The 
natural consequence of these causes was a 
marked decline of the South Parish in num- 
bers and ability ; a decline which would have 
been much more disastrous, and less easily 
retrieved, had not several of Dr. Haven's own 
children — of whom twelve attended his fu- 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



73 



neral — already assumed prominent places as 
citizens, and devoted their substance, services, 
and influence, with generous zeal, to the in- 
terests of the religious organization endeared 
to them by the bonds and associations of filial 
piety. 

I spoke of the settlement of a colleague with 
Dr. Haven. This colleague was Rev. Timothy 
Aid en, a lineal descendant of the John Alden 
who came to Plymouth in the " Mayflower." 
He was the son of Rev. Timothy Alden, of 
Yarmouth, Mass. ; was born in 1771, and 
graduated at Harvard College in 1794. He 
was distinguished in college, and subsequent- 
ly as an Oriental scholar ; and delivered, 
on taking his degree, a Syriac oration, — 
probably the only one ever uttered on this 
side of the Atlantic. He was so well versed 
in the Hebrew, that he translated into that 
language the " Assembly's Shorter Cate- 
chism ; " adding, I suppose, very little to 
its obscurity. He was ordained here in 1799 ; 
Rev. Dr. Holmes, of Cambridge, preaching 



74 HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



the sermon. He was a man of fervent piety, 
active benevolence, and no mean order of pro- 
fessional ability. He was an assiduous pastor, 
and manifested especial solicitude for the good 
of the children under his charge. He esta- 
blished what might seem an anticipation of 
the Sunday school ; gathering the young per- 
sons of the parish at stated seasons for the 
recitation of scriptural lessons, and giving 
printed certificates to those who reached a 
specified standard. The whole number that 
attended these exercises was one hundred and 
thirty-five. 

His ministry, while it had many elements 
that promised success, was, nevertheless, a 
failure. For this there were several reasons. 
He was a strong Calvinist, and a large ma- 
jority of his parishioners were opposed to him 
in theological belief. His support was in- 
adequate, and he was obliged to devote much 
of his time to the duties of a school for young 
ladies. He lacked worldly wisdom, and in- 
volved himself in several unfortunate secular 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 75 

enterprises. He seems to bare had no con- 
tinuity of purpose; and, while in labors more 
abundant, he wasted much of his energy in 
desultory plans and endeavors. Inability to 
continue the payment of his salary was the 
ostensible ground of his dismission ; but this 
inability would not have existed, had he proved 
himself in all respects adapted to his situation. 

After his dismission, he continued his school 
here for three years ; and was afterward en- 
gaged in similar schools in Boston, and in 
Newark, X.J. He subsequently laid the 
foundations of Alleghany College, at Mead- 
ville, Penn. ; and was inaugurated as titular 
President of that institution in 1817. He 
procured funds for the erection of a spacious 
college building, collected for his infant semi- 
nary an admirable library, and obtained for 
it an excellent chemical apparatus. But his 
own sons and nephews were almost the only 
alumni of the college, of which he constituted 
the entire Faculty ; until, in 1831, the fran- 
chise and property passed into the hands of 



76 HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



the Methodists, under whose auspices the in- 
stitution has attained a high degree of pro- 
sperity. He died at Pittsburg, Perm., in 
1839. 

After Dr. Haven's death, the pulpit was 
supplied for two years by various clergymen. 
In December, 1806, St. John's Church was 
burned ; and, for most of the interval which 
elapsed before the completion of their present 
church, the Episcopal congregation occupied, 
with ours, the Old South Meeting-house ; the 
same minister not infrequently officiating for 
both parishes, — reading the Liturgy one part 
of the sabbath, and using the Congregational 
forms for the other. 

In September, 1808, Rev. Nathan Parker 
was ordained pastor of this church. He was 
born at Reading, Mass., in 1782; and gra- 
duated at Harvard College in 1803. He 
studied his profession with Rev. Dr. Bancroft, 
of Worcester, Mass., who preached his ordina- 
tion sermon. 

To the many still surviving who knew Dr. 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 77 

Parker, and in whose memory his image can 
never lose its characteristic features, it would 
be needless for me to do more than mention 
his name. But I am already surrounded by 
a generation that have seen only his portrait 
and his monument. For them I would say, 
that of manly, Christian, and ministerial ex- 
cellences, so full and rich an impersonation is 
seldom found, even among the best and the 
most gifted. Devout without ostentation, keen- 
ly discriminating as to character, direct and 
frank in his intercourse, perseveringly kind, 
courageous and resolute in difficult and pain- 
ful duty, assiduous in all the charities of his 
profession, foremost in every good work for 
the community, a discreet counsellor, a friend 
always to be depended on, — his countenance 
and manner indicating at once the hardiest 
and the most amiable traits of character, so 
beautifully blended that you could not say 
which predominated, ■ — he assumed at once, 
in the parish and in the town, a place and in- 
fluence such as few have ever maintained 



78 HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



among us ; and, had he not confined himself 
even too exclusively to his duties here, he 
would have been universally recognized — as 
he was by all who knew him — as second to no 
minister of his time and denomination. His 
fidelity and tenderness as a pastor ; his won- 
derful power of insinuating needed counsel in 
his peculiarly laconic style, so as to say all 
that could be of avail, without the formality of 
a professional adviser, and without room for 
the most sensitive to take umbrage ; his loving 
and efficient sympathy with the afflicted, 
sick, and dying ; his singular capacity of 
enlisting and organizing co-operation in his 
plans of improvement and usefulness, — these 
are among the unexhausted themes of admira- 
tion among all who were conversant with his 
ministry. 

In his mien and manner as a preacher, there 
was a simple dignity, an unstudied solemnity, 
which impressed strangers with unwonted 
reverence and seriousness, and which only 
deepened that impression on those who were 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



79 



his constant hearers. His sermons were full 
of sound thought and calmly fervent feeling ; 
seldom impassioned, never feeble. "With little 
rhetorical ornament, with no display of elo- 
quence, his simplicity, chasteness, directness, 
and force of diction, never failed to enchain 
attention, to arouse earnest interest, and to 
leave ample food for self-reflection and self- 
chastening. In examining his manuscripts 
after his death, with a view to publication, 
I was astonished and perplexed in finding 
hardly any sermons that either rose above or 
fell below the average high order of excellence 
in thought and style ; and a selection made 
by one blindfolded would, perhaps, have fur- 
nished as characteristic and worthy a me- 
morial of his pulpit services as that which was 
made with the utmost care and the most 
diligent scrutiny. 

At the time of Dr. Parker's settlement, the 
parish was so feeble that its resuscitation 
seemed, to manv, a boneless endeavor, From 
that day, its growing prosperity was an as- 



80 HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 

certained fact. Its increase in numbers was 
constant and rapid, till checked for lack of 
church-room. This increase, primarily due 
to the eminent gifts and graces of the pastor, 
was largely aided by occurrences connected 
with the history of the North Parish. Dr. 
Buckminster's popularity had retained in and 
drawn into his flock very many who had no 
sympathy with his Calvinistic creed. At his 
death in 1812, at least half of his parish were 
anti-Calvinistic. One of the ministers invited 
to settle over them — invited by a bare ma- 
jority on a strictly party vote — was a Uni- 
tarian, whose settlement was vetoed by the 
independent vote of the church. To the 
council convened for the ordination of Rev. 
Mr. Putnam in 1815, a protest against his 
settlement was presented, with the signa- 
tures of from sixty to eighty legal voters of 
the parish. A large number of these, with 
their families, soon joined the South Parish. 
Dr. Parker and Mr. Putnam exchanged minis- 
terial services till the return of Dr. Parker 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 81 

from the ordination of Rev. Jared Sparks, at 
Baltimore, in 1819. Dr. Channing's sermon 
at that ordination was a singularly clear and 
strong exhibition of Unitarian sentiments, 
with which it was understood that the clergy- 
men who participated in the service entirely 
sympathized ; and it was made the occasion, 
throughout New England, for the suspension 
of such ministerial intercourse as had been 
maintained — not very cordially — between 
the clergymen of the two recognized parties 
in the Congregational Church. At this time, 
Mr. Putnam declined the accustomed inter- 
change of services ; and most or all of the 
Unitarians, who had till then remained under 
his ministry, transferred their connection to 
the South Parish. 

In 1824, — the South Meeting-house afford- 
ing restricted accommodations for the members 
of the parish, and none for its prospective 
increase, — the corner-stone of the church in 
which we are assembled was laid. The edifice 
was completed and dedicated in February, 1826. 



82 HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 

A strong local attachment, with memories 
too dear to be rudely sacrificed, held some 
of the parishioners to the house where their 
fathers had so long met for praise and prayer ; 
and a respectable body of worshippers formed 
a new society, and maintained separate services 
there, with the countenance and aid of the ma- 
jority who had taken possession of the new 
church. Had that society been fortunate in 
the choice of its minister, it might have re- 
mained in being during Dr. Parker's lifetime ; 
and, in the change of relations that would 
naturally have ensued on his decease, would 
probably have risen to a good degree of 
strength and prosperity. I am inclined to think 
that the religious elements of our community 
would have easily adjusted themselves so as to 
sustain two permanent and flourishing societies 
of our faith ; yet not without weakening some 
of the other parishes, in whose well-being we 
have reason to rejoice. The society at the 
South Meeting-house settled a good man, but 
one whose services failed to command the 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 83 

respect and interest of his hearers : and the 
organization was disbanded in 1829 ; the mem- 
bers, I believe, without a single exception, 
rejoining the parish from which they had 
amicably seceded. 

For the last few years of Dr. Parker's life, 
he suffered under an intensely painful and 
incurable local disease ; which, for a part of 
the time, incapacitated him for pulpit duty; 
though, until within a few weeks of his death, 
he continued to perform most of his pastoral 
labors. His patience and energy under the 
depressing influence of incessant suffering, 
his continued thoughtfulness and kind offices 
for all within his sphere, and his meek sub- 
mission to the divine will, made his days of 
infirmity and decline eloquent in the cause to 
which he had consecrated his health and 
strength. It was believed that his life might 
be indefinitely prolonged ; and some were so 
sanguine as to hope, that, after a year's 
respite, he might resume the full charge of 
his flock. But it was found necessary to pro- 



84 HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH, 

cure for him present relief; and I was invited 
to be his colleague for one year, with the 
understanding that I should retire at the end 
of that period, if he should be able to dispense 
with my services. My ordination was on the 
24th of October, 1833. On the evening of 
that day, Dr. Parker's case assumed, for the 
first time, an aspect of immediate danger ; 
and after lingering for a fortnight in the 
full possession of his mental powers, and in 
the exercise of all those Christian graces 
which make the death-chamber seem the ante- 
room of heaven, he passed to his rest and 
reward. 

Into the history of my own pastorate I can- 
not enter. Such few external events as merit 
a place on its record are too recent to need 
recapitulation. On my part, the connection 
has been one of sincere affection, and earnest 
endeavor — though with the frequent conscious- 
ness of inadequacy and failure — for your high- 
est good ; on yours, of a kindness which merits, 
and has, my warmest gratitude. 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 85 

Did time permit, I should enter into the his- 
tory of that most important of our subsidiary 
institutions, — the Sunday School. This, how- 
ever, I willingly omit ; not because I regard it 
as of inferior moment to the details which 
I have given you, but because the work has 
been so ably and faithfully performed in seve- 
ral printed reports by the former and present 
Superintendents. 

Among the other parochial institutions, I 
ought to make emphatic mention of the Ladies' 
Domestic Missionary Society, which has, for 
forty years or more, pursued its quiet course of 
usefulness ; furnishing annually a liberal sub- 
scription to the funds of the Evangelical Mis- 
sionary Society for the aid of feeble churches, 
and an equal or larger sum for various pur- 
poses of religious charity in our own commu- 
nity. 

For many years, the Society for Mutual Im- 
provement was, for a considerable portion of 
our body of worshippers, among the best means 
of instruction and edification. The essays read 

7 



86 HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



and the discussions held at its meetings devel- 
oped a large amount of talent that might not 
otherwise have found utterance. This associa- 
tion declined in interest mainly because the 
establishment of courses of popular lectures 
threw such ability as was nurtured among our- 
selves into undeserved neglect, and made many 
unwilling to enter into what might seem to be 
a competition with those who wrote professedly 
and expressly for a larger public. 

I have given you abridged biographies of 
my predecessors in the ministry. I regret 
that my limits preclude more than a cursory 
mention of the eminently excellent and use- 
ful men who have borne with the pastor a 
large part of the charge and burden of the 
sanctuary ; and of whom we can trace an un- 
broken series, commencing with the early days 
of our separate organization. Such, in the last 
century, were Matthew Livermore, a man of 
excelling gifts : holding the most important 
legal offices under the Crown ; and for fifty 
years, and with four successive pastors, a de- 



HISTOEY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 87 

voted and zealous leader in the temporal affairs, 
and helper in the religious growth and welfare, 
of the parish ; — Henry Sherburne, a liberally 
educated and munificent merchant ; whose 
house was the wonted home of the clergy from 
abroad ; whose time and ample wealth were 
freely given to every work and cause of piety 
and charity ; and whose example of singular 
sanctity in life and character was all the more 
conspicuous for his high social position ; — and 
Samuel Hale, one of the most eminent scho- 
lars in Xew England ; the intimate friend and 
constant co-adjutor of Dr. Haven during his 
entire ministry ; having become a resident of 
Portsmouth a little while before Dr. Haven's 
settlement, and following close upon his foot- 
steps to the grave. The whole of Dr. Parker's 
ministry was signally blessed in those who 
shared and gladdened his labors. Not to speak 
of the living, in whom we still rejoice ; nor yet 
to mention the many among the departed, 
whom I must recall were I to cite more than 
two, — no pastor can have felt his hands up- 



88 HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



borne and his work seconded with a sounder 
discretion, a more loving zeal, and a more 
truly Christian energy, than were brought to 
every portion of the altar-service by Nathaniel 
A. Haven, jun., and John W. Foster, — names 
as inseparable from the history of this church 
as they are from the heart-history of the many 
to whom they held the place of spiritual 
fathers. In addition to, and often in connec- 
tion with, services of this kind, we have reason 
to remember not a few, whose liberal gifts have 
been bestowed in times of special need, or in- 
vested for current use in the administration of 
our charities. Especially ought I to mention 
the names of Haven and Sheafe, — families with- 
out whose aid we probably should never have 
seen this massive and costly house of worship ; 
the former, a name still borne, and, I trust, long 
to be borne, among us ; represented, too, in our 
beautiful communion-service, and in a perma- 
nent fund for the relief of our poor widows : the 
latter connected through two donors, father 
and son, with the greater part of the invested 



HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 89 

funds of the Sunday School ; and through the 
generosity of the last of the name who was 
with us, of a younger generation, with the 
enlarged, remodelled, and refurnished interior 
of our church. 

But I have exceeded my due limits. Yet 
there was much that I wished to add, — 
thoughts of gratitude to God, motives to fide- 
lity in our place and calling in his Church, — 
which I must leave, for the most part, to your 
own reflections. 

We have a history on which we can look 
back with unmingled satisfaction. No name 
has come down to us, as connected with the 
ministrations in our sanctuary, which we may 
not be glad to own. During the entire period 
of our corporate existence, our records have 
been defaced by no public scandal ; by no quar- 
rel, strife, or division ; by no stain upon the 
moral or religious character of any office-bearer 
in our church. Be it our Christian ambition 
and glory to hand down to another century 
records as pure as we have received. Above 



90 HISTORY OF THE SOUTH PARISH. 



all, let our names and our life-work be so 
entered in the register which must wax old 
and perish, that they shall be worthy of being 
transcribed into God's book of eternal remem- 
brance. 



A P P E N D I X. 



APPENDIX. 



It has been thought best to preserve, for future 
reference, the following details, which could not be 
incorporated into the body of the preceding Dis- 
courses : — 

MINISTERS. 

John Emerson, installed March 23. 1715 : died June 21, 1732. 
William Shurtleff, installed Feb. 2, 1733; died May 9, 1747. 
Job Strong, ordained June 28, 1749; died Sept. 30, 1751. 
Samuel Haven, ordained May 6, 1752 ; died March 3, 1806. 
Timothy Alden (colleague), ordained Nov. 20, 1799; dismissed 
Aug. 12, 1805. 

Nathan Parker, ordained Sept. 14, 1808; died Nov. 8, 1833. 
Andrew Preston Peabody, ordained Oct. 24. 1833. 

DEACOXS. 

The following persons have officiated as deacons ; 
viz., Kichard Shortridge, James Sherburne, Mark 
Langdon, Daniel Jackson, Isaac Williams, John 
Marshall, John Noble, Xadab Moses, John Marshall 
(son of the former of that name), Jonathan Locke, 



94 



APPENDIX. 



Solomon Cotton, John W. Foster, Samuel Hale, 
Samuel Lord, and James F. Shores, ■ — the two last 
named holding the office at the present time. 



THE ORIGINAL CONFESSION AND COVENANT. 

A Confession of Faith agreed to by the subscribers on the 
occasion of their combining together in church order. 

In general, we believe God's word, or the Holy 
Scriptures, to be the adequate object and only 
ground of our faith, — as the rule of faith and man- 
ners ; and, therefore, we believe in all things ac- 
cording to them. More particularly such things as 
these we believe : — 

1. That God is, and that he is a rewarder of those 
who diligently seek him. 

2. That this God, who is the living and true God. 
is but one in essence or being, though threefold in 
substance or manner of being; viz., Father, Son, 
and Spirit. 

3. That this God hath made all things for him- 
self, and does uphold them by the word of his 
power, and govern them to their ends. 



APPENDIX. 



95 



4. That he has formed man in particular for his 
praise ; and did, at first, make him every way meet 
and apt therefor, to serve actively thereto. 

5. That he gave him a rule to walk by, that he 
might obtain this end; which rule is the moral law 
contained in the Ten Commandments, and was at 
first fairly written in his heart. 

6. That this rule w T as given him also as a cove- 
nant of works; so that, upon his perfect observance 
of it, he was to be happy for ever ; or, upon a failure 
in any one point, he forfeited this happiness, and in- 
curred the contrary, — misery. 

7. That, upon the trial that was used w T ith him, 
■ — in particular, that of the forbidden fruit, — he 
failed, fell, broke covenant with God, and rendered 
himself obnoxious to the penalty of the law, the 
curse of God, and the wages of sin. 

8. That hence he became divested of God's image, 
unmeet for his service, prone only to sin, and a sub- 
ject of misery. 

9. That God had compassion on him in this fallen 
and perishing state; and, wdien unable to help him- 
self, mercifully provided for his redemption there- 
from in and through a Mediator. 

10. That of this he made some, though a more 
dark, discovery to our first parents ; afterwards a 



96 



APPENDIX. 



more clear one to Abraham, to Moses, and the Pro- 
phets, during the Old-Testament dispensation. 

11. That now he hath made a more clear one; 
since, in the fulness of time, he hath sent forth his 
Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to 
redeem them that are under the law. 

12. That in and through him, and as founded in 
him (in whom are all the promises, yea and amen), 
God hath graciously propounded a new covenant 
unto men, commonly called the Covenant of Grace. 

13. That, of this covenant, there was a twofold 
dispensation ; viz., that of the Old and New Testa- 
ment : on the account of which, this latter is, in 
Scripture, sometimes called a new covenant. 

14. That the terms of this covenant are the same 
for substance under each ; viz., faith, and repentance, 
or sincere obedience, — as the terms of the covenant 
of works was perfect obedience. 

15. That though impotent of ourselves to perform 
the terms of this any more than the other, yet Christ 
has become an undertaker for his, that all that the 
Father hath given him shall come to him; and 
though he does not perform the terms of this cove- 
nant for them as he has done of the first, yet he 
enables them to perform them, working in them 
to will and to do of his good pleasure. 



APPENDIX. 



97 



16. That, by complying with the terms of this 
covenant, we accept of the covenant itself, and of 
Christ offered therein as our Mediator, our Priest, 
Prophet, and King ; and are thereby entitled to his 
benefits ; viz., the forgiveness of sins, the adoption 
of children, salvation, and life eternal. 

17. That there are two seals of this covenant, — 
viz.. Baptism and the Lord's Supper, ■ — which they 
have right to who take up with the terms of this 
covenant. 

18. That one of these is a beginning seal, — viz., 
Baptism, which declares us to be of the church of 
Christ; that the other — viz., the Lord's Supper- — 
is a confirming seal, serving to stablish and strength- 
en us, and to promote our growing up in faith and 
love unto perfection : so that this latter is frequently 
to be repeated ; it being the sacrament of feeding, 
nourishment, continuance, and growth. But the 
former must not be more than once ; it being the 
sacrament of our new birth and entrance. 

19. That the church of Christ, which is the com- 
pany of the called, is but one general assembly, 
called the catholic church, either militant on earth 
or triumphant in heaven. 

20. That the militant part of it is yet divided into 
manifold congregations or particular churches (as 



98 



APPENDIX. 



so many companies under their captain), orderly 
gathered and settled under such church-officers as 
Christ has appointed for their greater convenience 
of worshipping God, of opposing their soul-adversa- 
ries, and promoting their own edification. 

21. That these officers should be orderly called 
and ordained to their office, according to the rule of 
Christ ; and, accordingly, should be submitted to 
and acknowledged in their place ; teaching the 
doctrine of Christ, and exercising that government 
and discipline which Christ has set up in his 
church. 

22. That as all believers are of the church catho- 
lic, so they should be of particular churches ; and 
that a profession of their faith, with a life agreeable, 
does qualify them for acceptance as members in full 
communion with a particular church. 

23. That the end of church -communion is to pre- 
pare and qualify for that which is to be enjoyed in 
heaven above, after this life. 

24. Finally, that there shall be a resurrection of 
the just and unjust at the last day, and a general 
and last judgment, whereby the righteous shall be 
adjudged to life eternal, and shall receive the end of 
their faith, even the salvation of their souls. 



APPENDIX. 99 

We whose names are hereunto affixed, appre- 
hending ourselves called of God to combine together 
in church order, confessing our utter an worthiness 
of so great a spiritual privilege, as well as inability 
to keep covenant with the Holy One of Israel, or to 
perform any duty which he requires, without the 
aids of divine grace, — 

We do this day, in the name and strength of 
Christ Jesus, our glorious Lord, freely covenant and 
bind ourselves, solemnly, in the presence of God 
himself, his holy angels, and all his people here 
present, to serve the God whose name alone is 
Jehovah, — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, — the 
only true and living God ; cleaving to him as our 
sovereign good and last end. And we acknowledge 
the Lord Jesus Christ, w r ho is God-man, and supreme 
Head of the church, and Surety of the new covenant, 
as our only Mediator and Saviour, Prophet, Priest, 
and King, of our souls ; promising to submit unto 
him in the way of gospel obedience. We do likewise 
take God the Holy Ghost to be our Teacher, Sancti- 
fier, and Comforter ; under whose gracious influence 
we do more particularly oblige ourselves to perform 
private and secret as well as public duties in a 
perpetual course, and to attend the means of grace 
and salvation. 



100 



APPENDIX. 



Avouching the Lord to be our God, and the God 
of our children (which we devote and dedicate unto 
him, for ever to be his consecrated servants) ; esteem- 
ing it as a distinguishing favor and high honor that 
the Lord will accept of us, and our seed with us, to 
be his people, — 

We do also give ourselves one unto another in the 
Lord, covenanting to walk together, as God's pecu- 
liar people and a particular church of Christ are 
obliged to do, in all the ways of his worship, accord- 
ing to the holy rules of his word ; promising, in 
brotherly love and Christian charity, carefully to 
watch over one another's souls, and to submit our- 
selves to the discipline and power of Christ in "his 
church, and duly to attend the seals and censures, 
or whatever ordinances Christ hath commanded to 
be observed by his disciples, so far as the Lord, by 
his Spirit, word, or providence, has or shall reveal 
unto us to be our duty. 

And, that we may faithfully keep our covenant 
with God and each other, we desire wholly to deny 
ourselves, and entirely to depend on the free grace 
of God for assistance, and upon the merits of Jesus 
Christ for acceptance, and, wherein we shall fail in 
any part of our duty towards God or our fellow- 
Christians, to wait on him for pardon through his 



APPENDIX. 



101 



name ; beseeching the Lord to own us as a church 
of Christ, and to delight to take up his gracious and 
constant abode among us. 



At what time the Covenant given above was 
changed, it is impossible to determine. The form 
that was adopted in its place does not appear on 
the records of the church (which, for a portion 
of the time, were very imperfectly kept) : but it is 
referred to in the following vote, passed March 5, 
1809 : "The church having, during their vacancy, 
lost their form of church-covenant, it was voted that 
Deacon Marshall and X. A. Haven be united with 
their pastor (Dr. Parker) as a committee to draught 
a form, and present it to the church for acceptance. ,; 
The following form of covenant, reported by the 
above-named committee, and adopted by the church. 
March 21, 1809, was said to have been derived, in 
part at least, from the remembered words of the lost 
form : — 

" Believing that there is one God. and one Media- 
tor between God and man ; that the Scriptures of 
the Old and New Testaments are the word of God, 
and the only rule of faith and obedience ; that Jesus 
Christ is the true Messiah, and Son of God ; and 

8 



102 



APPENDIX. 



that he has appointed two special ordinances, — 
Baptism and the Lord's Supper. — which it is the 
duty of all true Christians religiously to observe, — 
you do now. in an everlasting covenant, dedicate 
yourself to God in Christ Jesus. You do htm 
ask of God the forgiveness of all your sins : and 
desire, with all your heart, to accept Jesus Christ as 
he is offered to sinners in the gospel. You likewise 
solemnly engage, that, by divine assistance, you will 
approve yourself a true disciple of Christ Jesus. 
You particularly promise, that, so long as God shall 
continue you in the relation which you now com- 
mence, you will walk in communion with this church 
of Christ, and will conduct agreeably to the rules of 
the gospel, according to what you do know or shall 
know to be your duty. 

In the name of Jesus Christ, then, I declare ycu 
a member in full communion with the church of 
Christ ; and. in the name of this church. I promise, 
that, in the aid of the Holy Spirit, we will conduct 
towards you as a member of the same body with 
ourselves ; watching over you for your good with a 
spirit of meekness, love, and tenderness; earnestly 
praying that the Lord would delight to dwell among 
us, that his blessing may rest upon us, and that his 
glorious kingdom may be advanced. Amen." 



APPENDIX. 103 

It was voted at the same time, " That persons 
wishing to join in communion with this church be 
propounded on the Communion-Sabbath immediate- 
ly preceding the one of their proposed admission ; 
that the covenant be consented to by such candi- 
dates by signing it in private, or by owning it before 
the church previous to admission ; the signing in 
private, or consenting to it before the church, to be 
at the election of those proposed for admission." 



In October, 1842, a committee, consisting of Rev. 
Mr. Peabody, J. W. Foster, and Alexander Ladd, 
was appointed to consider, and report on, a proposed 
change in the form of covenant, and manner of ad- 
mission to the church. This committee presented 
the following form, which was adopted by the 
church, Jan. 29, 1843 : — 

Christian Friends, — We regard the Lord's 
Supper as free to all who can come to it with faith 
in Christ, and. with humble and thankful hearts; nor 
would we presume to fence in the holy table by any 
barrier of man's device. Yet we deem it meet and 
profitable that the new guests whom we welcome to 
this feast of love should make such profession of 
Christian faith and of Christian purpose as may 



104 



APPENDIX. 



fulfil the command of our blessed Master to confess 
him before men, that so he may confess us before 
his Father who is in heaven. We desire also, by 
the use of this simple form, to impress the more 
deeply on all our hearts our obligations to God, to 
our Saviour, and to one another ; and to draw the 
more closely the bonds of Christian fellowship 
among ourselves, as followers of the same Master 
and worshippers at the same altar. We therefore 
invite our friend A. B., who is here present with 
us, to unite in our usual form of Covenant. 

As you take your place for the first time at the 
table of the Lord, you profess your faith in God, 
the Father of all ; in Jesus of Nazareth, as the true 
Messiah, the Son of God, and the Saviour of men ; 
and in the Holy Scriptures, as the records of divine 
revelation, and the only sufficient rule of faith and 
duty. You avow your solemn purpose, by divine 
aid, to obey the commandments of God as given in 
the gospel of his Son, and to make Jesus Christ 
your guide and pattern ; looking to God's mercy, 
through him, for the forgiveness of your sins, and 
for the influences of his Spirit to sustain you in the 
Christian life. 

In the name of Jesus Christ, then, I welcome you 
as a member of his church ; and, in the name of 
your fellow-disciples here, I pledge to you our 



APPENDIX. 



lOo 



Christian sympathy and affection ; trusting that you 
will walk with us in the spirit of meekness and love, 
and will unite your prayers and efforts with ours for 
the growth of true religion among us, and for the 
advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom in the 
world. 



FUNDS. 

The Church Charity-Fund — the result of con- 
tributions at the communion-table, with a few special 
donations — amounts, at the present time, to four 
thousand dollars. The income is annually dis- 
tributed, in part for distinctively religious charities, 
in part for the benefit of the poor members of the 
church, — to whose sole and immediate use the con- 
tributions at the communion-season are now, and 
have for several years been, devoted. The trustees 
of this fund are the proprietors of the cemetery at 
the foot of Auburn Street ; in which the lots still 
unsold are reckoned at their estimated value as a 
part of the fund. 

Joseph Havex, who died in 1829, left, by his 
will, a fund originally amounting; to two thousand 
dollars, but reduced, by the unforeseen depreciation 
of certain stocks which formed a part of the legacy, 
to eleven hundred dollars ; the income to be an- 



106 



APPENDIX. 



nually distributed among the poor widows of the 
parish. 

Mrs. Ann Tread well, widow of Robert O. 
Treadwell, who died in 1844, bequeathed to the 
parish a thousand dollars ; the income to be an- 
nually expended in the purchase of wood for the 
poor members of the parish. 

Robert Rice, who died in 1853, left the minutes 
of an unexecuted will ; among which was a bequest of 
a thousand dollars to the South Parish, the income 
to be annually expended for charitable purposes 
within the parish, at the discretion of the minister. 
His benevolent design was promptly carried into 
effect by his heirs. 

The invested funds of the Sunday School amount 
to fifteen hundred dollars, derived from legacies, of 
five hundred dollars each, from Thomas Sheafe 
(1830), Horace A. Haven (1843), and Samuel 
Sheafe (1857). 



CHURCH PLATE. 

The plate in use by the church until 1828 con- 
sisted of six ancient silver cups, of various work- 
manship, without date, or name of donor ; the rest 
of the communion -service being of cheaper material. 



APPENDIX. 



107 



The rich and costly service of pure silver now in 
use, consisting of three flagons, eight cups, and two 
plates, — massive, highly wrought, and beautifully 
embossed, — was the gift of the late Joseph 
Haven. % 

A baptismal basin of hammered silver was pro- 
cured, in 1740, from the proceeds of a bequest by 
George Walker, of whom nothing else is known. 
This, in its original form, was used until a quite 
recent period, when, with additional silver from the 
old cups, it was recast in a style corresponding to 
that of the communion-plate ; the name of the donor, 
with the date of his bequest, being engraved on the 
later, as it was rudely cut in the earlier, form of 
the vessel. This, for public use, is now superseded 
by a permanent font of white marble in the chancel 
of the church, — the gift of Mr. William Sheafe. 



HOUSES OF WORSHIP. 

The meeting-house built in 1731 is still standing. 
After the dissolution of the short-lived Society 
formed from the South Parish, it remained vacant 
for several years. It subsequently became the pro- 
perty of a member of the Free-Will Baptist Church ; 
and was occupied, at several different periods, as a 



108 



APPENDIX. 



place of worship, by the Society of that denomina- 
tion, which has recently erected the church on Pearl 
Street. In the intervals of this occupancy, it has been, 
for a considerable portion of the time, kept open for 
religious worship, sometimes by series of Sunday 
afternoon or evening services, arranged by the clergy- 
men of the city ; sometimes by regular services, con- 
ducted by the city missionary, under whose auspices 
a prosperous Sunday school now holds its sessions 
there. Several years ago, a floor was laid between 
the two tiers of windows. The second story now 
contains an audience-room, with a handsome pulpit, 
slips arranged in the modern style, singing gallery, 
&c, together with a small vestry ; while the lower 
story is divided into a ward-room and two school- 
rooms. 

The church now occupied by the South Parish 
was dedicated on the 8th of February, 1826. It is 
built of Rockport granite, with a heavy square bell 
turret of the same material. It was originally 
ninety-two feet in length by sixty-six in width, 
with an open portico projecting seventeen feet, and 
supported by four granite columns. It contained 
one hundred and four pews on the lower floor; and 
eight, together with the orchestra, in the gallery. 
The late Samuel Sheafe bequeathed to the parish 
three thousand dollars, of which five hundred were 



APPENDIX. 109 

for the Sunday school, and fifteen hundred for the 
purchase of a new organ. It was found impossible, 
without extensive alterations, to make room in the 
original organ-loft for such an instrument as it 
seemed desirable to procure. This difficulty led 
to the enlargement and remodelling of the church 
in the summer and autumn of 1858. In the prose- 
cution of this enterprise, the rear wall was removed, 
and an addition of seventeen feet made to the length 
of the building. The organ — an instrument of 
great power and richness of tone, manufactured by 
the Messrs. Hook, in procuring which Mr. Wil- 
liam Sheafe, as executor and residuary legatee, 
more than doubled the sum destined to that pu- po. 
by his uncle — stands on a platform raised three 
feet above the body of the church, against the rear 
wall. The choir have seats in front of the organ, 
separated, by a heavy black walnut railing, from 
the crescent-shaped platform, of which the pulpit 
occupies the centre ; with the communion-table on 
the eastern, and the baptismal font on the western, 
side. The pulpit is of black walnut, with carved 
trusses on either side ; and, in the front, a richly 
moulded panel, with a carved shield and foliage. 
The ceiling and walls were taken down, and re- 
newed ; the ceiling in panel-work, with ornamental 

9 



110 



APPENDIX. 



mouldings ; the walls with fluted pilasters, and Co- 
rinthian capitals and entablature. Over the organ 
there is a massive scroll-work canopy, supported by 
fluted columns, with Corinthian capitals. The pews 
are of black walnut, and of an elegant design. 
There are one hundred and thirty-four pews on 
the main floor of the church, and twenty-two in 
what used to be the music gallery. An entrance 
has been made into the church from the rear, with 
a passage and anteroom on each side ; one for the 
use of the minister, the other for that of the choir. 
Over the doors leading to the anterooms are raised 
tablets, with appropriate inscriptions. The entire 
cost of these improvements, including the organ, 
was from fifteen to sixteen thousand dollars. To- 
ward this sum, Mr. William Sheafe, over and 
above the surplus paid by him beyond the legacy 
for the organ, subscribed one thousand dollars ; and 
assumed, besides, a large additional pecuniary re- 
sponsibility, nominally covered by pews conveyed 
to him by the parish, but for which his returns must 
be slow and doubtful. His claims upon the grati- 
tude of the parish are not a little enhanced by the 
fact, that his unsolicited and generous overtures 
were made while he was meditating a permanent 
removal from Portsmouth, and fulfilled on his part 
after he had become a citizen of Boston. 



APPENDIX, 



111 



CHAPELS. 

In 1818, a small wooden building (which had 
been erected as a temporary banking-house for the 
New-Hampshire Union Bank, after the destruction 
of the previous bank-building in the great fire of 
1813) was purchased by the South Parish, removed 
to a site on Wentworth Street given to the parish 
by Joseph Haven, and arranged for use as a 
chapel and Sunday-school-room. This was sold, in 
1828, to the Pleasant-street Congregational Society ; 
was removed to a site on Livermore Street, in the 
rear of their church ; and, on the dissolution of that 
Society, was occupied for several years as a school- 
room. It has since been converted into a dwelling- 
house. 

In 1828, members of the South Parish purchased 
the meeting-house on Pitt (now Court) Street, 
originally placed there by the Independent Con- 
gregational Society, afterward occupied by the 
Calvinistic Baptist Society, and vacated by them 
on the erection of their church on Middle Street. 
This building was occupied as a Sunday-school and 
lecture room, from the autumn of 1828 till Febru- 
ary, 1857, when it was removed to make room for 
a more commodious edifice. 



112 



APPENDIX, 



The corner-stone of our present chapel was laid 
on the 25th of May, 1857; and the building was 
consecrated by appropriate religious services on 
the evening of Xov. 13, 1857. It is seventy-five 
feet by thirty-four, with a lateral extension of the 
vestibule. Over the vestibule are two rooms, so 
connected as to be easily thrown into one, and 
together measuring seventeen feet by thirty-seven ; 
the smaller of which is appropriated to the parish 
and Sunday-school libraries, and the larger designed 
for meetings of the Sunday-school teachers, Bible 
classes, and other similar uses. The main room of 
the building is fifty-eight feet by thirty-three, and 
twenty-two feet in height. It contains accommoda- 
tions for thirty-eight separate classes, and ample 
room to seat four hundred children with their teach- 
ers. The organ is placed in a recess behind the 
desk. The entire cost of this building and its fur- 
niture (not including that of the land on which the 
previous building stood) was about eight thousand 
dollars, of which the sum of fifteen hundred dollars 
was furnished by the parish in its corporate capa- 
city, the residue by the voluntary subscriptions of 
individual parishioners. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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